The Masinde Muliro University Council has encouraged the university management to focus not only on providing quality education, but also creating wealth and employment as a product. The university team and members of council mutually agreed that MMUST must begin to find ways of mobilizing resources and not overly rely on capitation from the government. This was during a two day workshop held on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April 2019 at the Kisumu Savannah hotel.
“I would like to see MMUST as a national university leading in the entire region in areas like manufacturing and innovations. As a university, we need a strategy on how to engage the private public sectors including locals and stakeholders at international levels. We can collaborate with national government and create investment opportunities”, said the university Chancellor Dr. Peter Muthoka. The MMUST council and management jointly agreed that they would carry out good visibility studies and explore profitable partnerships. Further, the university will make sure that researchers disseminate research output and actualize it in real-time in our communities. The team working on the university strategic plan declared that moving forward, MMUST will create a niche in manufacturing by producing ICT consumables and innovations for society and commercialize them in tandem with the Presidential Big Four Agenda. Students choose universities because of uniqueness of courses, ambience, collegiality, security and quality accommodation. MMUST has endeavored to provide all this to its growing number of students.
While addressing the workshop, the Chairman of Council Dr. Jeremy Bundi noted that there is need to make MMUST visible across all County functions. He further affirmed that the university council will support the implementation of the strategic plan. He encouraged the university to urgently create a think-tank of professors, renowned scientists and social scientists to come up with proposals that can solve the University’s as well as the community problems. Dr. Bundi affirmed that the chancellor was keen in supporting the university’s programs and activities.
The university Ag. Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Bosire said he will make sure that the council’s input is incorporated into the strategic plan to enable MMUST become a world class university. He further said the university will continue to operate an open door policy where any matter useful to the growth of the university can be addressed. He recognized the need for MMUST to be able to compete effectively with any other university in the world and promised to cascade the strategic plan to everyone in the university.
Present at the workshop were other council members; Dr. Samson Muchelule, Mr. Don Remmy Ogalo Riaroh, Ms. Joyce M. Nderitu, Mr. David Watene and Ms. Dorothy Kimeu, who emphasized that there is need for more creative resource mobilization strategies that are also sustainable. Dr. Samson Muchelule, reiterated that the council is keen to modernize the university’s architecture in order to enhance its corporate image. Ms. Nderitu urged the university team to make sure the university branding extends to campuses, as a way of marketing the university. On the other hand, Mr. Riaroh urged members to think of the University as part of the wider community and therefore use a multisector- approach to tackle issues affecting many people like flooding and famine which affect some parts of Kenya today.
In his closing remarks, Prof Mutai, who doubled as the workshop organizer and the university Ag. Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning Research and Innovation (DVC PRI), appreciated the views given by council and university management and other members of the university who attended the workshop. He promised that the university team and the MMUST Council will jointly work together to push the university to world-class standard.
By Shiundu Wilberforce (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Dr. Lydia Anyonje (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
